Earthlink A No-Show At Council Wi-Fi Hearing

Will Wireless Philadelphia fulfill Mayor Street’s soaring vision of a city where all residents enjoy affordable Internet access or will it end up like man’s early attempts to fly by strapping on homemade wings and jumping off a cliff? The grimmer view dominated yesterday’s City Council technology committee hearings into Wireless Philadelphia’s progress. Councilmen Frank Rizzo Jr. and Brian O’Neill were appalled that Atlanta-based Earthlink, Inc. — the Wireless Philadelphia provider that recently announced it was getting out of the wireless-city business — did not show up to testify. O’Neill said he had received a statement “allegedly from EarthLink” on […]

CINEMA: What Would Jeebus Do?

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? (2007, directed by Rob Van Alkemade, 91 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It’s hard to reconcile what has become the modern American version of Christmas and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at Luke 12:15, where the man they called Christ warns against covetousness, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” I don’t know if real pastors are preaching such anti-materialist messages this holiday season, but performance artist Bill Talen ponders the question of Christ’s capitalist instincts under the guise of “Reverend Billy” in this diverting new documentary produced […]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

RADIO TIMES Hour 1 MAUREEN FAULKNER, the widow of slain Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner talks about her new memoir Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice. Daniel Faulkner was gunned down Dec. 9, 1981. A jury convicted Mumia Abu-Jamal for the murder and sentenced him to death. He has since appealed through the State and now Federal Courts alleging he got an unfair trial. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3 Hour 2 Drexel University student Jocelyn Kirsch and University of Pennsylvania graduate Edward Anderton surrendered to the Philadelphia police last week for […]

TODAY I SAW…

BY JEFF DEENEY TODAY I SAW a powder blue-and-white pickup truck pull up to the curb across from where I stood, mid-block on a side street near 29th and Dauphin in Strawberry Mansion. The truck’s cab was piled with scrap metal and appliance parts, precariously held in place by a single length of corded yellow rope. I had been standing around, waiting for someone and making small talk with a neighbor for a minute before the truck stopped and parked. The house over my left shoulder was boarded up and abandoned. The house directly behind me had a storm door […]

THE TAO OF MITT: Suffer The Children

ASSOCIATED PRESS: His shot at the Republican presidential nomination in jeopardy, Mitt Romney will begin running a TV ad against Iowa front-runner Mike Huckabee on illegal immigration starting Tuesday while weighing how much negative campaigning he can add to the methodical plan he’s followed all year. The ad says the former governors have a lot in common — but not on illegal immigration, an important issue in Iowa, which will lead off nomination voting with its caucuses on Jan. 3.“Mitt Romney stood up, and vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens, opposed driver’s licenses for illegals,” the ad says. “Mike Huckabee? […]

5 Things U Should Know About Fiery Furnaces Last Nite

ELEANOR DIG ME: Fiery Furnaces singer Eleanor Frieberger, First Unitarian, Opener MGMT continued their streak of great opening sets in Philadelphia, playing as well with the Fiery Furnaces as they did with Of Montreal in October. Though their live show may be a bit low key for some, it was far from boring, and the guitarists had some of the best veins-that-pop-out-of-arm-while-playing in recent memory. Surprisingly, the Fiery Furnaces’ disjointed, wandering, and largely epic style of songwriting translated very well to the stage. Singer Eleanor Friedberger wove yarn after yarn in a set comprised of songs mostly from their latest […]

KBR/HALLIBURTON: Gang Rape Inc.?

ABC NEWS: In the lawsuit, Jamie Leigh Jones also says, after the gang rape, she was held in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door. It was only after, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone that she could reach her father, who then called his congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, to help get his daughter out of Baghdad to safety.   RELATED: